Trying to finish up a PhD during a global pandemic over the past year has been... erm... interesting. What impactful moment in time for every human on this planet. This has me reflecting on timelines in a whole new way. So, my PhD will be a bit longer (Spring 2022 defense).

I've come to appreciate this "bonus time", as it has yielded some awesome opportunities. I started a new project that allowed me to immerse myself in a new [to me] method of bacterial cloning that has expanded my knowledge and interests in new genetic tools. I utilized technologies like modular Golden Gate Assembly and CRISPRi in plasmid constructs and have future plans to adapt a modular broad host range bacterial toolkit for in cis modification of wild isolates of bacteria. The skills I have learned over this time are invaluable and I am not certain I would have taken the project on if the pandemic never happened.

With that being said, I am looking for postdocs to start Summer or Fall 2022. I am in search of a project within the broader research areas of: microbiology, host-microbe interactions, symbiosis, molecular ecology, mechanistic ecology and cell biology. I would love to continue focusing on coral reef ecosystems and their model organisms if possible, but would entertain job calls for all marine ecosystems. I am interested in working with a PI that places emphasis on hypothesis-driven inquiry utilizing new and emerging techniques in genetics and genomics. A woman mentor is preferred (because I could learn a thing or two about how you make an academic career work), but not absolutely necessary.